The Godfather, the Divorce and the New High School
by youre not you
Summary: After his guardians' divorce, Harry is thrown into a world of politics, confusion and desperation. No magic – AU – Set in Montreal, QC, CA – Slash
1. Chapter 1 The Beginning

**The Godfather, the Divorce and the New High School**

**By youre not you**

**Summary**: After his guardian's divorce, Harry is thrown into a world of politics, confusion and desperation. (No magic – AU – Set in Montreal, QC, CA – Slash)

**Chapter one – The Beginning**

"Divorced?" The words hit Harry harder than anything else. His aunt had caught her husband of 20 years cheating on her with an intern at the Bombardier offices in the western part of the city of Montreal. It had been decided that Petunia and her 17 year old son Dudley would move to Toronto, Ontario to live with some friends of the family until they could get back on their feet again.

'But what about me?' the words that Harry had not dare to utter came from his mouth. He learned that his uncle – who wasn't too happy to be taking care of him in the first place – had been talking to his father's best friend, his godfather. Harry would be moving in with Sirius Black and his roommate Remus in their Mile End home.

The summer of 1996 was a hard one for Harry. The seventeen year old had to not only leave the only home and family he had ever known, but was recently discovering himself - who he was. He didn't want anyone in his conservative "family" to know who, or what he was, but he knew. He was gay. Almost no one knew. Almost. He had met with a counselor from Project 10 - a local organization dedicated to helping young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens – who helped him realize that he was not a freak like his guardians had called him so many times.

So with the knowledge that he'd be meeting an unknown godparent for the first time, to live with until he finished his CEGEP education, he brought the few things he owned on the Metro and made his way to rue Henri-Julien. Harry and his two bags boarded a public bus which eventually made its way to the Atwater metro station, and he then swiped his bus pass and hoped on the Orange line (direction Henri-Bourassa). Harry luckily found a corner seat, where he was able to safely stash on bag below the seat and another on his lap and patiently sat until "_Prochaine station: Laurier_". At the call of the annoying female voice, Harry gathered his belongings and stood by the door. As the metro slowed down to a halt, and the doors opened, he wished ever so frantically that he could stay with his unloving uncle in the suburb of Pointe-Claire, in the cool tree lined streets, in the home dating back to the 1950s.

Harry exited at the corner of Berri and Chaplais and walked a block until he reached Henri-Julien. He then turned left and walked down until he found number 23928. A second floor apartment with a winding staircase and a brightly colored door. He walked up the metal stairs and was just about to knock when:

"Oh! You must be Harry. You look just like James you know, except with your mother's eyes!" A man with frantic looking black hair and kind eyes had opened the door and was accessing the boy in front of him like there was no tomorrow. "Well come in, come in Harry! I'm Sirius and welcome to your new home!".

Harry stepped into his new dwelling and was overwhelmed by the chaos. Unlike the Dursleys' neat home, with everything places almost obsessively, the home of Sirius was filled with books and old newspaper clippings. It was the work of a madman! But no, Sirius hadn't given Harry time to look at the names of any of the tome's, or the subjects of the many clippings. He whisked Harry down a short hallway and into "your new room!"

Unlike the rest of the house – from what he had seen – the small room was bare, with just a bed, a closet, a bookshelf and a desk. The walls were plain – white - and the furniture looked as though it had been purchased from _Village des Valeurs_. The pieces were mismatched, a desk made of dark wood, a metal bookshelf, and a laminate bedframe. They were all in fairly good condition however. The godfather informed Harry that he would be able to decorate the room however he wished and that it would be his own private domain. Neither himself or Remus (the ever elusive roommate) would enter it without Harry's consent.

Of course, with Harry's past of Big Brother like guardians, he scoffed at the idea of complete privacy and figured that this… Black character was just trying to get into his good books. Next thing he'd know, Black would be forcing him to go to mass and anti-abortion rallies.

Sirius left his young charge to himself, to sort out his belongings and gave him the money to get some paint to paint his bare walls. After a quick stop to the neighborhood hardware store to pick out a quart of paint – teal, Harry's favorite color – he dashed back to Casa de Sirius and upon entered was shocked, even more so than when his aunt announced the divorce.

**Author's notes: **So yes, I am a real Montrealer, and my story is geographically accurate (more or less). I've tried to keep it to canon as much as possible, such as with dates and whatnot but yes. The characters are vaguely OOC I know, but this is also an AU fic. Sirius' house number is completely made up, the street is not. I've been consulting a map of Montreal for the non-major streets, and so they're all correct.

Translations:

"_Prochaine station: Laurier_" – Next station: Laurier

_Village des Valeurs_ – Value Village (a chain of second hand stores across Canada)

Now to answer a couple Quebec type questions.

_CEGEP_ – An acronym (pronounced say-ghep) that is for the "college" education in Quebec. Pre-university programs last two years (generally), and there are 4 English CEGEPs on the island of Montreal (I go to one of them)

_Secondary V_ – Quebec had a weird education system. Grade school is from Kindergarden to grade 6 and then you go to high school. This lasts from grade 7 to grade 11 (where you get your high school diploma). These grades are commonly refered to as secondary (or sec) 1-5 (1 being grade 7, 5 being grade 11).

_Metro_ – the subway

_Project 10_ – a real organization. I'm currently designing their new website.


	2. Chapter 2 When Harry Met Remus

**Pre-story author's note:** Thanks to my (one) reviewer. And to the people who've added me to their favorite stories, or author alerts, YOU'RE HOT!. I found a couple (stupid grammatical)

**Chapter two – When Harry Met Remus**

When Harry returned from the neighborhood _quincaillerie_ and let himself into the small 4-½ apartment, he returned to the sight of his newfound guardian making out with of all things, another _guy_. Harry was shocked beyond his wildest beliefs. He stood at the front of the quaint living room gapping like a fish out of water. It was then that his vivid green eyes gazed upon one of the many books that filled the flat. Never going back: A history of Queer Activism in Canada.

'Hmmm' thought Harry, 'a book on the gay rights movement?'

He continued to look around the books and found book upon book on gay rights, law, and Canadian politics. When he glanced at the newspaper clippings he saw photos of Sirius and the mysterious-making-out-with-his-newfound-guardian guy together. At protests, outside of courtrooms at the _Palais de Justice_, he started wondering about what Sirius was doing with his life?

Just then he heard someone clearing their throat, looked up and saw his godfather looking at him, just wondering how long Harry had been there. Harry, who was completely unsure of how to handle the "situation", said something that neither himself, Sirius, nor MMOWHNG guy would forget for a long time.

"What the fuck are you? Some kind of … **_FAGGOT_**!" The moment Harry said this, he instantly regretted it, the look on Sirius' face made his heart break. He never knew that someone could convey so much hurt, ...pain, ...disappointment in one look. Sirius ran out of the room, the guy – 'no the man' Harry's thought corrected – who was with him went after him.

Harry returned to his room to (a) paint his room, and (b) not unpack his things because he was sure he'd be kicked out after what he said. So Harry found some old newspapers in a blue recycling bin, opened up his teal paint and painted, and painted, and painted. The walls however were not your standard four walls painted the same color top to bottom, he started by painting the ceiling in the teal, and then painted the walls, all but the last two feet. Where white met teal, 'bubbles' circled the white, making the two combine in a pleasant, calming way.

But sadly, painting did nothing to help curb Harry's belief that he was yet another stereotypical self-loathing homophobe. He did know however that he had to keep his homosexuality a secret from Sirius, he didn't want him to know. He knew that it lead to his godfather either telling him how much his parents would be ashamed, or how those self-loathing homophobes are the worst of them all.

When Harry was done with his moment of self-loathing and self-doubt, he realized how incredibly tired he was, so he fell asleep in the room, letting the fumes from the paint take over.

The next day Harry awoke to Sirius standing at the door, peering in. Harry started to apologize, but his godfather would hear nothing of it.

"Harry, I don't want you to apologize if you don't mean it. But I want you to meet someone". Harry sleepily told Sirius that he would come out once he was dressed, and that's exactly what he did. In Dudley's oversized hand-me-downs he left his bedroom and made his way to the small kitchen. There he found Sirius, breakfast, and MMOWHNG guy.

Sirius started, "Harry, I want you to meet someone, he's very special to me. And one day, when the government accepts that us _faggots_ have the same rights as everyone else, we will be married, but until that day comes, he's still my boyfriend, lover, partner, whatever you want to call him. He's my Remus". The little speech almost, not quite, but almost brought tears to Harry's eyes. He wished that one day he would be so incredibly in love with someone to say that he wanted to marry them. But he knew that would never happen because his life was so incredibly surrounded in secrecy. No one knew – save for that one councilor – that he was gay. And even they didn't know everything about him. No one did.

But Harry meekly said "hi" to Remus, and asked Sirius exactly what he did. He discovered that Sirius was on the executive of the Quebec section of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Furthermore, he was director of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) commission. He fought for the equal rights of non-straight persons in Quebec, and in Canada. At times he was a highly publicized person. Whenever an issue revolving around gay rights sprung up, he was mentioned. His training as a lawyer, practicing both common and civil law was indispensable. He was a key figure in the wording of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, more specifically in Chapter I.1.10, which specifically states that discrimination based on sexual orientation could be punished in court.

When Harry asked about his schooling, since he was a long way away from his suburban high school, Sirius told him he would be attending the Alma matter of himself, Remus and his parents, Hogwarts Academy. Hogwarts – they explained – was a small private school in the Plateau-Montreal area, on rue Laurier in an old Catholic church. He further explained that Hogwarts was not a religious school, but today was more for families that either wanted a world class education for their children in a less expensive setting than the traditional private school, as well as a more open environment. The school was very open towards children of interracial, homosexual and other non-traditional settings. It was almost like the perfect place for a kid to gain an education.

**Author's notes:** So, all the stuff about the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedom is pretty much correct (I'm not sure when sexual orientation was added, but it's there, google it). Furthermore, the position that Sirius has in the NDP (a real political party) is real (I don't know if it existed in 1996 though). Also, I was thinking and Harry should be 16 at this point, so let me say this now: he has an early birthday and the story starts in August. Also, the book I mentioned is very, VERY interesting. I wrote a term paper on the spread of the gay rights movement in Canada last year and used it as a source. It's very good. Also **PLEASE REVIEW. I LIKE REVIEWS, THEY MAKE ME FEEL LOVED!**

Translations

_quincaillerie_ – hardware store


End file.
